Luther Malone
Born in the small village of Tow and raised by Mother Aeryn and Father Ulrich alongside his younger brother Tyrion, Luther didn't have the easiest of starts to life. Early Years Growing up, Tyrion was always accomplishing more than Luther, and his parents favoured Tyrion in many ways, Tyrion knew this too and would always pick on Luther, which would more so than not result in a fight that Luther would be blamed for, everything bad that happened, was Luther's fault. This caused a huge rift between the two brothers, even to the point where Luther wouldn't let Tyrion hang out with his friends at all, he'd threaten to beat him up if he didn't shut up about it. Luther would often act out as a young child, maybe in an attempt to grasp some much sought after attention, or maybe just because he was quite a rough loud child who enjoyed a scrap every now and again. The Dusting It wasn't until the age of 10, that Luther would really know and miss what a loving family he had. A midsummers day saw Luther out playing with his friends Vulcan, Igwe and the Nash brothers. Whilst playing out at the swimming hole, the group were confronted by a pair of opportunist goblins. The group of friends all came together to defeat the goblins and hastily returned to Tow to tell their parents what had happened. Coming back to the edge of the village, the group heard screams and began to panic as they could see the first person on the edge of the village, they got an idea of what was actually going on, the person vanished in front of their very eyes. Completely shocked, scared, worried and full of all sorts of feelings, the group each ran to their respective homes to see what was happening and look for the comfort of their family. Drenched in sweat, full of panic, and barely managing to catch a breath Luther burst through the front door of his home, trying to scream out "mum and dad" but nothing came out of his mouth, he stopped to compose himself slightly and managed to get the words out this time...but, no reply. Frantically running into each room of the house shouting for his mother, father, then even his brother...but, no reply. In floods of tears he checked the basement, the attic, even where his fathers horse was kept....but, no reply. Only the horse remained. He scoured the town...every public building he could, even the inn, a place his parents rarely went...but nothing. Just a handful of people left in the town, all doing the same thing. This was one of the first times in his life that Luther had properly experience fear, he ran back to the house and hid under the bed, hoping maybe somehow everything could go back to normal....maybe this was a dream? Exhausted by the running and crying and screaming, he passed out under his bed, awaking the next morning to realise that this nightmare was reality. Goodbyes Luthers friends families had suffered the same unknown fate. He and the other boys were looked after and raised by the local priest, Father Joseph Abraham. Joseph didn't necessarily want to have children under his care, but almost felt it his duty after what had happened. The boys grew up together under his care, and whilst he was a loving and caring figure, Luther struggled with this new relationship. He constantly wanted to know where and couldn't accept another father figure whilst he didn't know the true fate of his parents. He still got into trouble much like he used to with his own parents, but his anger grew and grew, and fights with his brother turned to fights with other members of the village and even travellers that were visiting Tow. At the age of 14 Luther was eavesdropping on some travelling merchants about how lucrative the capital city Vizeri was. Luther had some wild fantasy already of getting enough money to travel and try to figure our what happened to his family. He introduced himself to the merchants and asked if they needed any work doing. He would help them even if just for a trip to the capital. Vizeri This naive boy was not ready for what hit him when he arrived. The capital is a rough place for a boy to be hanging about that thought he was a man. What little coin he did have when he got with, was taken straight from him by thugs within a day. Luther tried to get work doing whatever little jobs he could for people just to have a meal or a place to stay for the night. Being battered and bruised and constantly robbed from toughened up Luther, who would learn over a couple of years how to stand up and look after himself. It turned out, Luther had quite a knack for fighting once he decided to start standing up for himself. All those years of fighting with Tyrion, something must have sunk in. A merchant who Luther was staying with pointed this out to him and suggested if he wanted to try and start making his way in life he could go and fight in the pits, where he would get paid to fight so that others could bet on it. It is here where Luther would be noticed and set about making his way in life. He lost his first fight...in dramatical fashion, a bruiser half orc named Thugg knocked Luther out in one clean punch. Luther eventually came around to his senses with a couple of silver in his hand, so it wasn't the worst day he'd had since moving here. Loss after loss after loss in the pits saw Luther become a bit of a laughing stock, the fans would jeer and heckle him every time he came into the pit as he was a regular and known for getting his ass handed to him. He was making more money than he'd ever seen in his life so there was a silver lining to this very depressing tale, and an even bigger silver lining was on the horizon. There was something ever so graceful in Luthers failings, he was determined, his mission was set and he did not stop trying, ever. He went into every fight with the optimism he could win it. This is something that a spectator took admiration too, after one fight, where Luther actually hadn't lost by that much, he was approached by an armoured and cloaked gentleman by the name of Lazarus Halstatt. He was a man of few words and simply said "Boy, if you want to achieve your ambitions, come with me and I can change your life", and he walked away. Luther quickly stumbled to his feet and followed the gentleman, looking around to make sure this wasn't some kind of scam to steal his coin from him. Greystand The Greystand Company, is a bounty hunting organisation that operates by taking contracts to either kill, rescue, retrieve goods or coin owed or gather information. If a bounty is issued it has been sanctioned by the state, and as such is legal to complete. Lazarus took Luther under his wing and helped him turn his raw skills into an artform. After 2 years of training Luther became somewhat of an prodigy when it came to fighting. For such a big man he could still move around nimbly, this gave him an enormous advantage over others as he could deliver power and speed. Luther tagged along on a few bounties, to get the hang of what was done and how a member of the Greystand Company should conduct themselves during an operation. They were not thugs! Lazarus came to Luther at the age of 19 to send him on his first solo bounty. To collect payment of 10 gold from a half-orc....named Thugg. Luther was in two minds about this, he still remembered the beating he took from him in his first fist fight, but he was full of pride and confidence with his newly honed skills. He used what he had learned from Lazarus to track down Thugg using local contacts, a couple copper here and there creates loose lips, and blending in he managed to approach Thugg from behind. Feeling a rather firm grip squeeze his should from behind Thugg turned around, with a somewhat confused look on his face, like he knew who this person was but couldn't place him. Stood before him, head to toe in blackened armour wearing a black cloak was a 6ft 8 Luther Malone. "Pay up Thugg, or you'll receive the same fate you gave me when we first met". Thugg raised a fist to strike Luther but was nimbly met with a fist with the power of a horses kick. Lay out on the ground, Luther removed Thugg's coin purse, calm and collected and walked away, leaving him passed out in the streets. Luther swiftly became a regular member of The Greystand Company and was earning very good coin, he was even offered his own room within the guildhouse, which was amazing for him. No more renting rooms in different inns every few weeks. He would have a place he could call home.